Christina Rossetti: Poem #11: 'Good Friday'

- TITLE: shows you instantly the poem is religious.
- 'Am I a stone, and not a sheep' key images, she's concerned that she's lacking in emotion/humanity. Questioning faith and emotional reaction to God. Sheep is an analogy for a follower of Jesus, as he is the shepherd.
-CONTENT: Someone is watching Christ's crucifixion but is not crying, guilt.
- Rossetti's speaker imitates Moses' exhausted tone when pleading to Christ.
- 3rd line on 1st stanza, shows the narrator to be too analytical - she is concerned with reason and fact, so doesn't have unquestioning faith.
- Poem is addressing Christ, poem is essentially a prayer.
- 'Not so... Not so...' this spondee breaks the flowing rhythm, adds to heaviness of situation.
- Themes of religion and gender.
- Iambic stresses falling on syllables that convey emotion (Like 'Song').
- Caesuras.
- 'And smite a rock' asking to be broken, asking for lack of faith to be destroyed so she can be a sheep.
- Pleading God not to give up on her.
- 'I only I' reinforcement of narrative stance in repetition of personal pronouns.
- 'o'er' archaic diction.
- Personification of 'Sun and Moon'

Christina Rossetti: Poem #7: 'A Birthday':

- Lots of natural imagery can be linked to religion + God's fulfillment - 'apple-tree' could be a symbol for the tree of life and 'rainbow' has connotations of Noah and the flood. God has fulfilled the narrator too by bringing her love to her.
- 1st stanza is centered on repetition of similes.
- Declarative tone in 1st stanza, a lot of repetition and parallelism. It also centers on nature's beauty whereas the 2nd stanza centers on luxuries. Again typical Rossetti imagery.
- 2nd stanza's first, third and fifth lines are imperatives - shows a strong and commanding voice, she's commanding the world.
- 'hundred eyes' hyperbole.
- Archaic diction - 'vair'
- Celebratory and joyous mood, lots of similes - the heart is symbolic for the self.

Christina Rossetti: Poem #10: 'No, Thank You, John:

CONTENT:

- Spirited and feisty narrator turns down suitor.

AIM + THEME:

- Themes of female identity, oppression, marriage, power-play between the sexes, narrative genre.

DICTION:

- Negative words, some imperatives, shows anger and struggle under male oppression in Victorian era, lots of alliteration, some assonance.

IMAGERY:

- Little imagery, amplifies opinions.

FORM:

- Structured, shows her strength and self-assurity. Could also be seen to be a dichotomy against her anger (disorganised emotion)

RHYME AND RHYTHM:

- ABAB, very structured.

TONE:

- angry, frustrated.

METRE:

- syllable structure = organised. 1 line of iambic pentameter per stanza? masculine stresses, shows male oppression?



-The 1st stanzas are questioning, interrogative
- But then the 3rd stanza stops questioning - she becomes firm in her opinions.
- repetition in stanza 1 shows monotony of his asking
-enjambment (links with the repetition).
-assonance (in stanza 1)
-Victorian era: changes in women's society + roles (right to vote).

Christina Rossetti: #9: 'Up-Hill'

- Title: can mean the journey from birth to death to the afterlife, or an analogy for life's progression, or it could convey a spiritual journey. Can either be a struggle or up-lifting spiritual enlightenment.
-ABAB rhyme structure
- very structured
-Lots of rhetorical questions, one sided conversation - one question then one answer etc.
- Interrogative tone
- Rossetti worked with the poor so understood life's struggle, represented in this.
- Weary tone, showing length of the journey.
- 'road' 'journey' show journey, common metaphor for life.
- 2 characters: - 1: attitudes: concerned, seeking reassurance.
                        - 2: attitudes: reassuring, kind, comforting, self-assured, all knowing. Feels like the voice of religion or faith.
- 'Inn' security, could be analogy for religious faith or love and protection, Rossetti did have this love but rejected it.
- 'Those who have gone before' people who've died, the idea of being reunited with lost love/people. Reassuring, spiritual tone.
- Different to most of her poems, simple lexical choices; could imitate the narrator's confusion. Also represents a realistic speaking voice.
-Typical, obvious imagery.

Christina Rossetti: Poem #8: 'Maude Clare'

GENERAL CONTENT, RHYME, METRE, THEMES ETC.

-Traditional ballad (Which are conventionally written for statement/popular story/attacking institutions instead of this type).

- Rhyme is strong, following an ABCB rhyme scheme which is actually not a traditional ballad's rhyme pattern, showing the poem to be avoiding traditional patterns.

-Rhythm is also strong - as traditional ballads used be to recited - the metre alternates between iambic tetrameter (4) (is less coherent adds to tension and awkwardness) and trimeter (3). 

-Narrative poem
-Feels like 3rd person but is actually 1st person narrative stance, an onlooker at the wedding?
-Links with 'Jhansi' as they are both about losing love and desperation and they both have very regular rhymes.
-ATTITUDES OF CHARACTERS:
-Thomas: torn, self-hatred?, perplexed, inwardly tormented.
-Nell: proud, awe-struck, self-assured, shocked?
-Maude Clare: withdrawn, spiteful, angry, malicious, mocking, sarcastic.
-Narrator: pitying, sympathetic

STANZA ONE

-'Out of the church she followed them' begins in media res, suspenseful as we don't know who 'she' is yet. 

- 1st stanza is all about Maude clare

- 'With a lofty step and mien:' the way she walks shows the strength of character and her self-confidence

- 'like a village maid...was like a queen' the two similes show Maude Clare and Nell's differences. 

STANZA TWO

-'With smiles, almost with tears:' the two emotions here are juxtaposed with each other, happy and sad are usually contrasted in Rossetti's poetry.

STANZA THREE:

-The mother knows about Maude Clare and her husband also loved another woman. (Backstory interpreted)

-This stanza's tone is darker than the previous ones

-'tale to tell' alitteration

-'not so pale' assonance

-'Nor I so pale as Nell' foregrounds what's to come, ominous - the mother knows more than she's letting on.

STANZA FOUR:

-'My lord...' the narrator is of a lower social status.

-Repetition of 'pale' - also pale was a sign of regal bearing and prosperity.

STANZA FIVE:

-Lots of parallelism, Maude's dialogue is sarcastic.

-We feel sympathy for Nell as it's her wedding day and she doesn't know about Maude.

STANZA SIX:

- Lots of symbols, e.g: 'lilies' which has Victorian connotations of passion, sex and fertility. Implied that they had sex before marriage: 'ankle-deep' which would give her a ruined reputation. 

-'golden chain' jewelry= ownership and possession. 

- Thomas has no voice, same as 'No, Thank You, John'

-Thomas' father also has no voice, men tend to be dis-empowered in Rossetti's poetry.

STANZA SEVEN:

- 'faded leaves' = dead love.

-Scornful tone, disdainful 

-alliteration: 'budding bough'

-possibility of pregnancy: 'the lilies are budding now' and repetition.

STANZA EIGHT:

- falter, pale, weak character

- Thomas' anxiety and apprehension is shown through caesuras.

- feeble attempt to avoid her insults

- he doesn't know how to talk to her

STANZA NINE:

- Sarcastic, creates tension.

STANZA TEN:

- her gift= his heart, she owns his heart - sarcastic gift.

STANZA ELEVEN:

- Quiet strength and self-assured (nell) 

- obvious rhymes

- repeats the marriage ceremony 

STANZA TWELVE:

- 'till' Thomas doesn't love her more than Maude yet, acceptance and a confidence that he will eventually. We feel sympathy for both Nell and Maude here but no sympathy for Thomas 

- Nell's courage has increased, expressing pride in her new husband. Nell's shown to be stronger than Thomas as Thomas' silence allows Maude to address nell. But Nell shows courage.

Christina Rossetti: Poem #2: 'From The Antique'

GENERAL CONTENT, RHYME, THEMES ETC.:

- Themes: alienation, oppression, Victorian women's exclusion from key systems of power, lack of female identity due to male oppression.
- Sense of women's entrapment - narrator seems to eradicate.
- Rossetti was a woman acutely aware of the social & political realities of her time.
- Rhyme = structured, ABCB
- Reflective, despondent, melancholic tone.
- Lots of natural imagery, again a common technique in Rossetti's poetry as a result of the Romantic poet's influence on her. This natural imagery in each stanza also lends a form of coherency to the poem.

STANZA 1 & TITLE:

- 1st stanza uses austere word choices, severe and strict mood. These show the uncompromising attitude of narrator's analysis of women's societal place.
- 1st line is one narrator and the rest of the poem is another (their dialogue) so it's 3rd person narrative stance but poem is 1st person dialogue. - Complex discourse structure.
- 'weary' - so weary is the position of women that annihilation is preferable, it would enable an escape from gender expectations and imposed identities (Links to loss of identity theme).
- Metrical change on the second line to emphasise the 'doubly blank' existence of women.
-'I wish and I wish I were a man...' far better it is to be a man in Victorian society, the repetition creates a sense of longing and despondency.
- Last line: 'were not' desire for extinction all together.

STANZA 2:

-

STANZA 3:

- First line could somewhat stop the audience's sympathy as it has a despondent, self-obsessed, cynical and self-pitying tone. But then again we are all the epicenters of our own worlds anyway.
- 'still...still' again more repetition
- 'Blossoms bloom' alliteration.
- There is a sensitivity in this line: 'Blossoms bloom as in days of old, Cherries ripen and wild bees hum'. As it's again resorting to natural imagery in order to promote positive connotations. However it is a contradiction as it was said before there was no water and yet there are cherries ripening etc. This is obviously intentionally done, and is figurative.
- Can be interpreted as 'Don't worry too much' despite the seemingly depressing subject matter.

Christina Rossetti: Poem #6: 'In the Round Tower at Jhansi':

GENERAL CONTENT, FORM, RHYME ETC.

- About Captain Skene and his wife in the Indian Mutany (1887), he committed suicide and killed his wife to escape the Indian soldiers.

- Regular rhyme: ABAB 

- Narrative stance = 3rd person but in 3rd stanza seems almost 1st person.

- Narrative poem -> different to most of her poems, lots of dialogue

STANZA 1 & TITLE:

- TITLE: suggests content, Victorian audience would have understood the reference.

- 'thousand to one' hyperbole 

- 'swarming howling wretches' imagery, the soldiers aren't given human characteristics they are described as disgusting and animalistic (swarm= not individualised) 

- 'gained and gained and gained' repetition of this triplet builds tension

STANZA 2:

- 'Skene looked at his pale young wife' Skene is given a name whereas she isn't, he has the power (Victorian traditions of gender roles), pale also is quite pitying

- Lots of unattributed dialogue and ambiguous dialogue 

- 'The time is come!' exclamatory tone, declarative statement - assume it's Skene replying, the man has the power and is deciding on their future

- 'Young, strong, and so full of life' another triplet shows the narrator's attitudes of sympathy etc.

STANZA 3:

- 1st three lines are trochaic feet, the 1st syllables are stressed which emphasise the tension. 

- 'close his... close her... close the' not only does this show their desperation not to let each other go but the parallelism also is a triplet once again.

- Exclamatory statement: 'God forgive them this!' shows pathos as well as narrator's attitudes of sorrow/pitying/sympathy also this shows the religious aspect of the poem (Victorian era, suicide and murder were considered sins) it also suggests a 1st person narrator

STANZA 4:

- Very reassuring dialogue from Skene (Again he has the power), parallelism again in 2nd and 3rd lines which present the character as selfless and caring. Regretful and desperate tone.

- 'loth' = he's able to do it

STANZA 5:

- 'kiss' repetition shows desperation, sibilance and alliteration are present in this repetition 

- repetition of compound words 'good-bye' show the disjointed nature.

Christina Rossetti: Poem #5: 'Shut Out'

Okay, so the last post was actually a lot less time consuming because I did it stanza by stanza rather than in CATSDRIFT MMVV form. Although the catsdrift would eventually make it easier to write essays because I essentially have plans already laid out, i'll save myself some of my weekend hours and write it stanza by stanza.

GENERAL FORM, TONE, CONTENT, METRE, RHYME ETC.

- The narrator has been 'shut out' of a garden and is desperate to be back in it, this could be an extended metaphor (narrative is a vehicle) for a termination of a relationship or it could also be referring to Eve being shut out of the garden of Eden.

- The rhyme scheme is: ABBA

- Metre = iambic tetrameter all the way through, the regularity of both the rhythm and rhyme conveys a mournful tone.

- Lots of sentence variety, the first sentence is simple whereas the second stanza is complex in form which represents the complexity of the ideas being discussed.

TONE: 

-Grievous, lost, mournful: 'shadowless...silent...tears'

-Isolated

-Regretful: 'lost'

-Desperate/hurt: 'grieve...blinded...'

-Possessive

-Abandoned: 'blank...unchanging'

-Terse: 'shut out'

-Desolate

-Begging/pleading: imperative sentence: 'let me have...'

STANZA 1 & TITLE:

- The title is a sentence fragment which perhaps gives a terse tone 

- The personal pronoun 'I' in the first sentence shows that the narrative stance of the poem is 1st person

- The first sentence is a short, simple sentence which again adds to this terse and defensive atmosphere/voice

-'My garden, mine' the use of personal pronouns again here reinforces the possessive tone

-'bedewed and green' this has positive connotations due to the natural imagery (?) This is juxtaposed with the 'iron bars' which are man-made.

STANZA 2:

- Again a great deal of natural imagery: 'bough to bough...song-birds...flower to flower the moths and bees... nests... stately trees' parallelism can also be seen here.

-This beautiful imagery is again contrasted with 'lost' which stands alone, draws our attention to it; juxtaposed with the pronoun: 'mine'

-This stanza represents the past which was beautiful, whereas Stanza 3 represents the present which is negative

STANZA 3:

- 'shadowless' and 'outcast' display desperate tone as well as fear, not casting a shadow is unnerving and is also a simile.

-features the imperative sentence discussed in 'tone' (see above)

- a nostalgic tone is represented by repetition and listing

STANZA 4:

-'He answered not.' this simple sentence again conveys the narrator's fear of the spirit.

STANZA 5:

-This stanza is different to the others as it lacks natural imagery, it is discussing 'mortar'  and walls which not only develop and caged and claustrophobic atmosphere but also are discussing man-made things, an interpretation of this could be that it's subtly referring to the industrial revolution?

STANZA 6:

-'nought' archaic diction

- more complex sentence

-'land' hyperbole

-Hopeless and resigned voice

STANZA 7:

-Parallelism and repetition are used again

Christina Rossetti: Poem #4: 'Echo'

For this poem - my page is a bomb explosion of annotations; with shrapnel of oxymorons and content smeared on the page - instead of writing it in CATSDRIFT form i'll write it stanza by stanza, to make my head hurt less.

GENERAL CONTENT & RHYTHM & STRUCTURE & TONE:

-One interpretation could be that someone (perhaps a lover) has died and the narrator is begging them to come back/desperate for them.

-Another is that the narrator is dead.

-However the ambiguity of the poem could mean that nobody is dead, all we know is that someone is yearning desperately for someone else.

-Lyric poem

- TONE: desperate, nostalgic, bitter-sweet, grief-stricken, lamenting, mournful, longing, unfulfilled desire, haunting, sinister. 

- The structure/form also reinforces the idea of echoes as the lines go in and out.

- The metre is relatively complex, most lines are iambic pentameter but when you look at the first line for example it's trochaic pentameter and then the 4th and 5th lines deviate from the regular pattern which are dimeter (NOT SURE ABOUT THIS, WILL CHECK).

TITLE & STANZA ONE:

-TITLE: ambiguous noun, refers to both the form and the content of the poem. The poem is about something coming back to the narrator like an echo. But also is a reference to Greek mythology's nymph Echo who pines for Narcissus until only her voice remains.

- Repetition is a common technique throughout the poem but predominantly in stanza one: 'Come to... Come in... Come with... Come back' this conveys the narrator's desperation. The similarity between the lines can also be seen as parallelism.

- Sibilance also features prominently in this stanza: 'speaking silence' which is also an oxymoron, showing that the two characters don't need words to talk to each other. 'cheeks and eyes as bright as sunlight on a stream' the reference to water (which is also natural imagery, figurative comparison to human physicality, which Rossetti uses a lot in her poetry which shows her influence from the Romantic poets) could also refer to the Greek mythology tale as Narcissus commits suicide due to his own reflection.

- This use of ancient techniques links with her using a lyric poem form which originally used to be sung in ancient traditions with a lyre, this is why she uses such strong rhyme and rhythm. She therefore uses 2 ancient forms for this poem.

- Speaking of rhyme, the rhyme scheme is ABABCC

- Archaic diction: 'O memory...' also memories are essentially echoes of the past. This last line: 'O memory, hope, love' is also a tripartite of abstract nouns which foregrounds echoes.

- 1st person voice.

- In terms of structure, this stanza (and the others) is one sentence which is achieved through the use of enjambment and colons + semi-colons (a complex syntax) which give the idea of caesuras and pauses. 

-In this first stanza there are also several imperative sentences which give the effect of desperation as the narrator is ordering/begging/pleading her/his loved one to return, the mix of anger and anguish of grief. 

- 'love of finished years' this shows the nostalgic tone 

-'O memory' the O is an apostrophe which is typical of lyric poems.

STANZA TWO:

- Very religious, describes heaven but in a very ambiguous way - the narrator's attitudes to death and heaven or 'Paradise' are very unclear. The 'Slow door' could also be referring to heaven's gate. Also no humans are referred to, only 'souls' which is a very spiritual way of saying it. A big theme in this stanza is the conflict between religion and love, which Rossetti explores a lot in her poetry. This could be perhaps linked to Rossetti turning down/losing several marriage proposals due to religious differences.

- Again there's a lot of natural imagery, specifically water: 'brimful' 

- This second stanza starts with another oxymoron: 'bitter sweet' which shows how loss skews our perception and memories.

- She is dreaming of them both meeting again in heaven

- But this idea of happiness is contrasted by the idea of the fact the the door 'lets out no more' perhaps to show how when one/if one of them has died with be trapped in heaven waiting for their lover. Again this emphasises the yearning.

- Again there is a lot of repetition in the first line with 'sweet' and despite this repetition the type of sweetness changes, this can be viewed as her convincing herself that he/she existed or that the desire/yearning is so profound it's a type of madness. It also once again shows echoes, echoes of words.

- Once again there's a lot of sibilance, a very vocal technique which could be because this was originally intended to be sang but also these sound patterns could also be referring to echoes again.

STANZA THREE:

- 'Cold in death' is a metaphor, we could infer that nobody is actually dead; but that the narrator's desperation for the other character is so profound it feels like a death.

- 'Pulse for pulse, breath for breath' these repetitions give the idea of a heart beat or breath beat.

-'Speak low, lean low' this imperative sentence has strong alliteration and assonance (which carry onto the final line) which convey the visual picture of the two characters being together again.

-'As long ago...' not only does this carry over the assonance, it also shows the ambiguity of time; we have no idea how long ago the narrator was separated from the (we assume) lover.

COMPARISONS TO OTHER ROSSETTI POEMS:

- With 'Remember' due to content and form, it's another lyric poem and are both about death.

- 'No, Thank You, John' due to similar syntax (both have a lot of colons and semi-colons).

- 'Shut out' due to the theme of desire and yearning and the 'door' symbol.

- 'Song' due to both death and love themes, but they are ironically different in their views; 'song' is about acceptance of death and asking the other character not to mourn them but 'echo' is about begging desperation. These are also both lyric poems.

Christina Rossetti: Poem #3: 'Remember':

I haven't got full notes for this poem yet, so instead of following CATSDRIFT - as I will do for the majority of these poems and use it as the blog post layout - I'll just type the notes as they're annotated in my notes.

- Sad and dark diction, religious and archaic vocabulary yet with an optimistic message (Juxtaposed content and tone)
- Several imperative sentences: 'Remember me... Remember me...'
- Figurative language used for afterlife: 'Silent land'
- Relatable: 'Nor I half tern to go yet turning stay'
- Some enjambment, perhaps symbolising her memory continuing on. But eventually it ends with a full stop, she wants the addressee to forget.
- Alliteration: 'hold...hand...'
- Feels like a will.
- 1st person, direct address
- Sonnet form!
- Strong, calm, quietly confident voice
- Death's prevalent in Victorian society, Rossetti was ill for much of her life too.
- Very irregular/complicated rhyme scheme - the complication and uncertainty of life/death?